Aspen Dental

I just came across your article concerning Aspen Dental Lawsuit and read almost every article concerning this case, I was in Aspen Dental this morning for the sixth time for a filling and a crown for two teeth this being said let me say that in August when I started going to Aspen Dental in Lakeland, FL. I prepaid $2, 500.00 upfront then I had my mother start going to this same office and have paid for everything out of my pocket cash no questions. When I had the original impressions done in October 2018 the Dental Assistant was either new or poorly trained her name was Morgan the Dentist in charge of the entire Aspen Dental office Dr. Carta Gena had to come help or redo the dental assistants work at least six times my appointment was at 9:30 am and was seen almost on time I did not leave the dentist office until after 1:00 pm and waiting on me was my mother and sister we where going to have lunch except I was in to much pain my sister said what is wrong with your mouth what she was referring to is that my front two teeth one was longer then the other these where not even the teeth being worked on that day or ever by Aspen Dental it looked like a chipmunk to give you some kind of picture and this was at the same time I was preparing to leave on a cruise with my family the night before I left for the cruise the partial filling they had put in fell out I called there 24 emergency number twice both times being assured of the dentist on call to get in touch with me asap I never received in phone call back at all from anyone when I returned from my cruise that it destroyed because I was unable to eat or enjoy myself with my family that I always pay for and cost me over $5, 000.00 that the dentist Dr. Carta Gena was very well aware that I was going on and so was everyone in that Aspen Dental Office when the office saw me the next day from returning from the cruise but not the original Dr. Carta Gena the dentist in charge that she makes well aware of it was a male Dentist that was again either poorly trained or new he glue the same piece that feel out back into my mouth and I stated then that I was not a dentist but that seems very unprofessional and the same dental assistant Morgan is the one who assisted him that same piece that they glued back in feel out that same night I was beyond pissed the next day when I went back to the dental office the office Manager Josh made sure that the most senior dental assistant on staff saw me but not the original Dr. Carta Gena it was again the male dentist he came in did his exam and was going to do the same thing he did the day before and glue it back in the dental assistant Dee that was very well trained gave another opinion that made a lot more sense even to me but I notice her idea would have costed Aspen more and the dentist was hesitant to do that after I gave my opinion he processed with the dental assistant Dee recommendation and I did not see the dentist again that day not even to check the work of the dental assistant at the time of this visit the dental assistant Dee that was very very good made commit to me that she was hoping this would work because she had never seen temporary cab and impressions done so poorly that I would probably have problems in that area of my mouth for awhile that she did the best she could and she did a great job until my permanent crowns and fillings where put in at the next visit I had my permanent crowns put in by Dr. Carta Gena and she was in and done very quickly and held a mirror up for two seconds it seemed and I followed every instruction not to eat or drink all instructions by my dentist have always been followed exactly to the letter I have had braces always well maintained teeth no gaps or missing teeth and very straight from the braces I thought after several days that the crown was loose and in fact there is a good size gap in my mouth now from there procedure so in fact it was air I was feeling not the crown being loose but it was not a feeling I have ever had in my mouth before so I did not know what it was in fact it was my Mom that noticed the gap eating dinner because my Mom lives with me so we see each other everyday and she has always been very proud of my teeth as she worked very hard while me and my sister where growing up to make sure we had everything we needed she is an exceptional example for all mothers to follow so we went back to the dentist I had a teeth whiting scheduled but I asked to speak with the office Manager Josh first before the cleaning to show him and he stated he doesn't remember a gap either that we would put off the teeth whiting until after the Dr Carta Gena returned from vacation that appointment was today after going into the exam room for the dentist to do her exam she came in and spent less than five minutes total explaining to me that when she heeled the mirror up for approx 2 seconds I should have said something there at no time apologized or even remotely seemed concerned about the gap that is now in my mouth and never took ownership of anything that her dental office from the start had did wrong so to wrap this up that facts are I had no gap in my teeth ever I can back that up since my youth and now I do there senior dental assistant Dee already told me they really messed up that area of my mouth the Dr Carta Gena told me my x rays showed a gap a little one not that large but there was nothing she could do because I should have noticed it when she heeled that mirror up when the problem started in August at that visit and was never corrected properly all under the supervision of the dentist in charge Dr Carta Gena so I told the office manager that if they where not going to stand behind there work and uphold there dental promise that you hear all the time then to close my account that was prepaid $2, 500.00 out and he did with a refund of $1, 027.00 to take over a month to be returned to me I can not even truly smile like I used to because of this mistake done by this dentist and her dental office so does this fall into the area of your Lawsuit if so I am willing to join and help any way needed. I appreciate your time and thank you in advance for reading my dental horror story that I will live with forever now.

Sincerely,
Michael F Vaughn

# [protected] / Cell
# [protected] / Home

4707 Deeson Rd
Lakeland, FL. 33810

2 Attachments

On 7-2017 had New dentures made have been back approx. 12 times for they have never been able to make them fit right
Was told on 1 -11 -19 to leave their office for their was no warranty left I would like my 4700 .00 refunded or New dentures made
They have changed denites on the first of the yr and he seemed not to care I've been in pain for the last 18 months and can't afford to pay for New dentures please see if u can help me
Larry Schutjer
[protected]@yahoo.com

December 27, 2018
To whom this may concern,

Att. Robert Fontana, Robert C. Connor, Arwinder Judge

This place is a total Scam. Very unprofessional dentists and the Office Manager is incompetent to say the least. She is rude, irate and has no customer service skills whatsoever. After making an 11am appointment to have my front tooth bonded I got there early at 10:40 am, signed in and waited till 12:15 to be called, they did x-rays and sat me in a dental chair and I waited till 1pm to be seen at which time I was told I needed to talk to the finance department before they move forward. He leaves and 20 minutes later the Hygenist comes in and tells me I need a cleaning first. I said fine. The the Finance department comes in and tells me it will be $400.00 for the cleaning.and I said what? She said very abruptly well you can't have the bonding done unless you have the cleaning so you either have to pay for it or you have to sign a payment contract. I refused the cleaning and . stated I came for the bonding. They said NO they would not do the bonding unless I paid for the cleaning. I got very anxious and stressed and asked for the manager, a heavy set woman comes in with a nasty attitude and basically looks at me and says you need to lower your voice. I said lower my voice, I am not yelling I am upset because your office is trying to take advantage of me, talking about everything from braces to $400.00 cleanings to telling me the dentist will not see me unless I pay for the cleaning. The office manager who should not in any way be dealing with your patients or any type of customer relations is very ill-trained and basically blew me off by saying well Miss if you don't pay for the cleaning your not getting the bonding. She without doubt needs to be replaced. i told her and the dentist and the Hygenoist that they have not heard the last of me and now will do everything in my power to contact everyone necessary to make sure this does not happen again to anyone else. once I returned home and after reading hundreds of reviews most of which were complaints from overcharging to doing unnecessary work, to poor customer service I am contacting the corporate office, the Better Business Bureau, ther news channel and any other site I could possibly add a negative complaint. I basically took time away from my Christmas holiday and my family to have my front tooth bonded because it chipped and literally spent three and half hours in the Stroudsburg office for nothing. Beware of Aspen Dental they are a complete farce, they are unprofessional, they are incompetent and they have no customer service skills. Your company should be ashamed of yourselves taking advantage of people the way you do. I am contacting the American Dental Association immediately.

Very disturbed
Susan Bucci
[protected]@yahoo.com

12/10 new patient x-rays and consultation
I got my xrays and then was seated in consultation area. Dr. Patel at Jackson MI location didn't even greet me when she entered the room and said "filling, filling, filling, root canal, filling, filling, filling, root canal, filling filling filling..." they told me I needed 9 fillings and 2 root canals. I was in zero pain whatsoever and absolutely shocked. I was crying and she just said "stop don't cry." they immediately led me to the payment office where they signed me up for a 2 year payment plan while I was still crying. After I had time to process all they had just told me and talk to friends and family I decided to get a 2nd opinion from my regular dentist. He was appalled. He said I did have a few VERY SMALL cavities. Even the largest one was considered smaller than average size. He said I absolutely need no root canals and I am not the first one to come to him after going to Aspen and being told they need a lot of work. staff was very rude to me over the phone and in person when I went to pick up my xrays and cancel my appointments with them.

Both my husband and I went to Aspen dental I had one broken tooth that needed to be repaired or capped they told me it had to be polled I had to get all new dentures and then walked out of there with like a $4000 bill my husband went very next day they yanked out all of his front teeth top and bottom and say they cannot complete the treatment. Aspen Dental has taken away my husband's livelihood he was a singer and guitar player and he can no longer

I started getting my upper plate at Aspen Dental about 3 years ago--so far I'm on my 5th plate that they've made and I'm out over $1000 and the plate I currently have in my mouth is cracked--yet again! The problems have ranged from cracks to terrible fits and poor repairs. The plate I have in that was one I got about a year ago and paid $800 for (supposed to be a stronger plate than the basic)--it developed a small crack about 2 weeks ago and I took it in and was told it was just "veins" and then over Thanksgiving while I was 950 miles from home, it cracked to about an inch long crack. I took it in last week for a repair and two days later I was eating a piece of dried apple (not a rock) and it cracked again. I will no longer be doing business with Aspen Dental and am letting everyone I know not to do business with this particular office in Roseburg, OR.

My husband got a quote for work to be done and paid them in advance. I immediately called them when seeing the quote and told them to a there was a primary and secondary insurance which they were not taking in to account. After the work was completed, i asked them for a statement of account to see the balance and breakdown. There was a credit of over $1, 000 on the account and we left it there because my husband was going to get more work done. After several failed attempts at getting an appointment to fit my husbands schedule, and the doctor cancelling the day before appointments, we found a different dentist and I requested a check be sent for the credit balance. When I didn't receive a check after a few weeks, i called back and they said that my account did not show a credit balance. Well, I have a printed copy of that original statement and asked for an updated copy. They have changed payment applications in their system to re-allocate money and no longer show a credit on my account. I faxed them both statements and they told me they would investigate. Numerous calls get the same results, they tell me they will get back to me or i just get voicemail.
They changed allocations of my personal payments to "absorb" the additional money on my account. The original statement shows a personal payment of $1, 079 and the new one that they doctored up now shows a personal payment of 491.00 - that is just 1 line of changes that they have made.

They advertise Emergency Dental services, so I called before hand and inquired about a simple extraction. Long story short, the receptionist said they'd be able to do it when they couldnt. The Dentist did not do ANYTHING because in her own words she's not skilled enough to perform an extraction plus she was covering for the other dentist who's normally there. I was so pissed off that not only couldn't they perform any procedures but I paid $121.00 for absolutely nothing at all but a prescription for penicillin and an xray which I didn't need or ask for! On top of that I had to pay another $150.00 at a MUCH BETTER smaller dental clinic to get my tooth removed. All the other dentist did was remind me that I didn't take care of my tooth.

11/19/18 4:46 PM

PATIENT NAME/DOB: CHRYSTAL PHILLIPS 04/07/1977
RE: GRIEVANCE ON CLAIMS FILED/PAID TO ASPEN DENTAL & DR. CHERYL COGGINS
DATE OF INCIDENT: 10/12/2018

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing today to explain what occurred with the above provider and why I am convinced that this company should not only return the funds received, but should probably be completely blacklisted by Humana, Inc. overall.

I will preface this by stating; I broke a tooth near the beginning of October. I used Facebook (a local group called What's Happening In Murfreesboro), to try to find a good dental provider that would actually pull teeth instead of trying to talk me into a bunch of cosmetic repair work that costs so much & I have not had a good history with. (I.e. previous root canal/crowns ‘going bad' and having to be drilled out and left open to drain due to infection). In this Facebook group, many people in my community had nothing but great things to say about Aspen Dental. I made the error of taking their advice without searching to ensure this was a quality provider.

I have a complete ‘Log' of ALL communications/issues that resulted from my uninformed decision to go there. The long and short of my grievance is, that during the X-Ray process, the girl taking the X-Rays caused numerous gouges/sores inside my mouth during this process. During the all around X-Ray, she had me place my teeth in the groove on the bite block & proceeded to push my head forward, resulting in my front left tooth cracking & breaking in half. When I told her that either my tooth or their bite block had broken, she informed me "that is just not possible". She also informed me during this time, that they were short-handed & she was helping with X-Rays. In hindsight, I now wonder if this individual was even trained/allowed to run an X-Ray machine legally in the State of Tennessee? When the X-Ray series was complete, I raised my head & held out my hand, as I knew exactly what had happened. Once I caught the tooth, I asked her if I should just throw it away? She indicated, ‘What?' I showed her my tooth & threw it in the garbage can located in the X-Ray area. When she realized what had happened, she ran from the X-Ray area up to the front for 8-10 minutes & went running past me again to the back. I could hear her telling someone that she needed help. Another tech came out and ran a whole entire additional set of X-Rays.

Following the debacle that occurred with the X-Ray, I waited 35-40 minutes for their ‘Doctor' Cheryl Coggins to come back to me. By this time, I was shaking; having an anxiety/panic attack that felt like a heart attack and was in tears. Their ‘Doctor' proceeded to grill me about why my teeth were so bad and how they had gotten that way. I only had an opportunity to first tell her that I did have incredible anxiety where dental care was concerned & feeling pushed into expensive fixes that I felt unnecessary - as well as my pain levels with dental care were the first part. She cut me off (**I also have a medical condition, Severe Acute Regurgitative IBS - that I have battled since I was 14 years of age. I am now 41, and was informed by the time I was 24 that there was very little to no enamel left on my teeth due to the severe bouts of vomiting I experienced, along with many hospitalizations - because of this medical condition.) Doctor Cheryl Coggins humiliated me, she made me feel like an idiot and I really feel like she was trying to belittle/demean me with the way she addressed my issues.

After she got the first part of the explanation, she told me the infection was too great to pull the tooth that day. (Upon viewing the log, you can ascertain that I did call two (2) days prior to my appointment & they failed to see if my insurance benefits were available before my appointment. So I walked out of there, no tooth pulled, no financial information & no follow-up appointment to address not only the initial issue of the broken molar - but now the broken front tooth that occurred as a result of their negligence. The ONLY reason I left was that Doctor Cheryl Coggins stated that the office manager had left for the day, but assured me - "She will call you first thing on Monday. She will have financial options for you, Mrs. Phillips. I will go Plan A, B, C…all the way to Z if I have to. We will take care of you."

That was an empty promise. I waited for two (2) weeks & two (2) days before their assistant manager; Rachel finally saw fit to return a phone call. I had left numerous voice mails for two weeks & two days…only when I did a bad review of the office online, did she call me back. As of this point, I had decided that due not only to their negligence & substandard care they had previously provided; but also because they did not keep their word in following up with me, that there was ‘No way in hell I was stepping foot back in that building to allow them to "care" for me." I indicated this to Rachel. She was very ‘sorry' and felt bad that I had experience this and as "sad that they couldn't make it right, but understood and agreed that I shouldn't have to go through not only the anxiety I now associate with them, but that I would indeed be proven a fool if I were to allow them to provide ANY kind of care to me or any of my family." I was fine with that ‘irresolution' because I was NOT willing to allow them to work on me any more.

Today, 11/19/2018, in the mail, I received a claim from Humana that actually has dental benefits subtracted for substandard care. This was after I did let Rachel know that I would not be returning, nor did I feel that I should be responsible for substandard/negligent care. I was under the impression that everyone would all ‘cut our losses, ' and that they would not be bold enough to charge for what could certainly be a civil lawsuit. (I did finally do my due diligence; sadly Aspen Dental nationwide have been the defendant(s) in multiple class action lawsuits for MANY of the shenanigans I experienced when I visited the Murfreesboro location. (The same person also owns the location in Smyrna, TN.) I do NOT think that ANY of my dental benefits should go to Aspen Dental for ANY reason. The entire experience was terrible and honestly they should not even be allowed to practice PERIOD. I am filing this grievance against their claim filing.

Enclosed, please find a copy (**rough and original - NOT altered to ensure spelling/grammar etc - was live as it was happening) of the log I made regarding ALL contacts/attempted communications with this office. Also, please find four (4) photographs taken on October 10, 2018. This is a series that I took attempting to get a good photo of the broken tooth that was my initial reason for the appointment, to see how bad it was. You can also clearly see, that while my front teeth were not gorgeous, the left front tooth is indeed intact and whole. Also enclosed please review an additional eight (8) photos, taken between October 12th (the date of service & injury) through today 11/19/2018 to show not only the damage initially done…. but also the break down of the damaged tooth due to crumbling. I feel certain that the crumbling has occurred due to the fact that the tooth was forcibly broken and left untreated. This experience has increased my mental anxiety and strain now regarding ALL dental work to be done & has destroyed my smile. I used to LOVE to smile; now I am ashamed to show my front teeth.

Please help me resolve this issue. I am available ANY time at [protected] or allie.[protected]@gmail.com for any clarifications, questions, recommendations, etc you may have for me regarding this experience. IF for any reason I do not reach a phone call before you hit my voicemail, please know that it is secure and ONLY I have access to it. You can feel confident leaving a message, knowing I will receive it and I will return any communications.

I do have available for you if you are interested, the letter to Humana (pretty much the same as the above complaint), activity log, BBB Complaint, and a plethora of screenshots with a variety of reviews. I also have photos on my phone of extended wait times during attempted resolution via phone calls.

Thank you,

Chrystal Phillips
[protected]
Allie.[protected]@gmail.com

I took my father to the new Fremont NE location on November 19, 2018. The lady at the front desk was very nice and professional and it went down hill after that. They put us in an exam room with was very dirty. It had used items in the sink-metal forms for the upper and lower mouth and a few other items; the sink was very dirty also. There were used utensils on a rack on the wall that were not cleaned off and probably should not be stored there. One looked like a paring knife, a spreader and two others. There was a used Q tip on the floor along with white paper and hard plaster also on the floor and on the base of the exam chair. Once we were put in the room no one came in to update us or check on us. At one point I went looking for staff and did not find or see anyone; maybe they all went to lunch? The appointment was 11:00 A.M. and we left at 1:00 P.M. When we left a gentleman came to the front desk and asked us if we are leaving and I said yes. He wanted to know if we wanted to reschedule another appointment and I said no. I did take photos of everything.